


The most important thing when ill (is to not lose heart)

by Crooked_pictures



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Exhaustion, Fainting, Fever, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Overworking, Romance, Sick Character, Sickfic, Sleepy Cuddles, Vomiting, short story what’s that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-10-31 00:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17839046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crooked_pictures/pseuds/Crooked_pictures
Summary: On Monday Feliciano wakes up with a headache.It gets worse from there





	1. Chapter 1

On Monday Feliciano wakes up with a headache.

A light pounding behind his eyes, accompanied by an unwelcome slosh of nausea when he gets out of bed.

The other half of the bed lays unoccupied, and he can hear Ludwig in the kitchen of their apartment. He stumbles into the bathroom, the smell of food is not exactly helping his churning stomach.

He presses a hand to his temple and closes his eyes as he starts the shower. 

_“It’s probably nothing”_ Feliciano thinks to himself as he steps under the hot spray, _”I’ll just take an aspirin before I leave”_

He gets out when the water’s heat starts making him dizzy, walking to the sink as he towels off. He pointedly ignores the pale complexion and dark circles in his reflection as he leaves the bathroom, the stubborn nausea and headache still clinging to him even after taking the aspirin. Feliciano groans softly as he makes his way into the kitchen.

There’s already buttered toast and coffee waiting for him at his seat. Ludwig is sipping from his own cup as he answers e-mails on his phone. 

He looks up when he hears a chair scraping across the floor and smiles as Feliciano sits down. 

“Guten morgen, engel” he greets warmly.  
“Buongiorno caro, thank you for making breakfast, I guess I overslept again.” He goes to pick up his coffee, but his stomach twists unpleasantly at the thought. He settles for nibbling on his toast instead.

“You went to bed late last night, and Saturday, too. Working, I presume?”

“Ah, yes. It’s the first big project of the year, and our deadline is tight. Everyone’s working really hard on it though, so I’m sure that we’ll get it done!” In an act of betrayal, his stomach gives another unwelcome slosh. He puts his toast down, barely touched.

Ludwig raises an eyebrow at this.  
“Are you not hungry?” He asks.

“Ah, I guess.. no, not really.” He smiles sheepishly, getting up from the table. Ludwig follows suit.

“Feliciano, are you sure that you’re alright?” He goes to cup his palm against his forehead, concern lacing into his voice, “You look a little pale...”

“No, I’m ok, really!” He bats Ludwig’s hand away. “I’m only tired, I promise.”

“Are you sure? You’ve been working much later than usual all of last week. What if you were to call in sick anyway? You should catch up on some sleep, at least.”

Feliciano is so caught off guard that a burst of laughter gets past his lips.

“I never thought I’d see the day! Ludwig I-can’t-sleep-I-have-to-get-this-done Beilschmidt telling someone to take a day off!” He ends his speech with a teasing kiss to Ludwig’s cheek, which had tinted red.

“But seriously, I have to be in this week. Emma is on honeymoon, remember? Me and Kiku are the only other graphic designers on the team. I can’t leave him to do all of the work himself, what kind of friend would I be if I did?”

Thankfully, Ludwig drops it after that. They manage to leave the house at a decent time, having been stalled when Ludwig insisted on loading the dishwasher, and they make their way towards their shared car. They currently only own one car as Feliciano had only recently switched from being a freelance artist to working as a full time graphic designer. Luckily, their offices are along the same road, and they have managed to match their schedule so that when Feliciano is leaving the building, Ludwig will usually already be there to pick him up.

The ride to work is as uneventful as ever, Feliciano hopes that the drone of the road and radio masks his sudden need to cough.

They reach Feliciano’s office building first. He kisses Ludwig goodbye on the cheek and exits the car, computer in tow, and made for the stairs. The headache hasn’t subsided, and the car wasn’t gentle on his stomach, but at this point he’s determined to just power through the day. Besides, Ludwig already drove off, it would just be a waste of time to call him back to take him home just for some sniffles. He would be fine. His only regret is that he didn’t have the foresight to bring more aspirin with him to work.

————————

Feliciano really, _really_ regrets not bringing more aspirin with him.

It’s just after twelve o’clock, he’s only four hours in and he’s pretty sure that he feels worse than he’s ever felt in his life.

Just as he imagined, work is grueling. All of the members of their small team are frantically working in effort to meet the ridiculously tight deadline. Even Kiku, whom to Feliciano’s knowledge, has always worked comfortably and efficiently, looks tired and stressed and is drinking more coffee than Feliciano has ever seen him drink. Not that Feliciano can judge; if it weren’t for his worsening nausea, blinding headache and sudden chills he himself would be chugging more caffeine than is strictly healthy. All thanks to the board directors absolutely brilliant idea to divide their absent employees work between the two _obviously already overworked_ graphic designers instead of just _putting another one on the team_

Yeah, Feliciano sees a lot of pissed off drunk rambling in his near future.

He’s so focused on his work that he somehow doesn’t notice a coughing fit until it hits him.

It’s hacking, dry, and makes his whole already aching chest resonate with a dull pain and he doubles over with the force of it. He covers his mouth with his elbow in an effort to hide the sound, but once he can actually breathe again and looks up, he sees that it was a useless endeavor.

More than half of the people within his direct line of sight hurriedly turn their heads away when he looks up, pretending that they didn’t notice, that was perfectly fine by him, however, one person decided that they weren’t going to deign him with that response.

Kiku, of course, looks up from his computer for what is probably the first time that day.

“Are you feeling ill, Feliciano?”

“Yes! I mean.... no, I’m fine, I’m sorry about that..heh.” His head is too clouded to think of an excuse, he just hopes that the subject will be dropped.

Kiku doesn’t buy it for a second.

“Excuse me but, you don’t look very fine, you look...” he squints at him. “You look very unwell. Are you running a fever? Have you checked?”

“Ah, I didn’t have one this morning, I’m sure that it’s fine!”

Kiku gives him an incredulous look, thankfully, Feliciano is saved by Alfred F Jones from accounting dropping by on his way to deliver some spreadsheets, successfully distracting Kiku long enough for Feliciano to slip away undetected as a voice on the intercom signals lunch time.  
Hopefully, by the end of lunch Kiku will have forgotten all about his little fit and they can both get back to work.

—————————

Feliciano groans as he sits back at his desk. A full body ache seem to have taken ahold deep within his bones, and his eyes have gone blurry around the edges, making him sigh in annoyance. He hasn’t felt this sore since that one time Ludwig convinced him that they should work out together.

Lunch was awful, he barely touched the meal that Ludwig had packed him, and he had to excuse himself and hide in the bathroom for the better part of the hour to avoid throwing up on the break room floor.

It’s at this point that he realizes that any sane person would have gone home sick long ago, but, Feliciano thinks, this is his first job. All of the hours spent in school and portfolio building had finally pain off when he’d been hired by such a well paying company. He had been accused of laziness and bad work ethic in the past and he was determined to not let his coworkers see any of those aspects in him, especially so early in his employment.

He gets back to work.

————————-

Some time later Feliciano looks at the clock, then at his computer, and sighs as he sends Ludwig a text saying to not wait for him and that he’ll get the bus home.

————————-

Feliciano drags his feet up the final steps towards his apartment. His face feels flushed and body racks with shivers even though he’s bundled up in a thick coat. He has to fight with his sleep-heavy eyes to keep them open as he knocks on the door. 

As soon as the door is open he clumsily stumbles through, barely hearing Ludwig’s concerned call of his name before he collapses on the couch and sighs at the relief that it brought his aching joints.

He feels the couch dip beside him and an arm slide over his shoulders.

“Long day liebling?” 

Feliciano makes a sound of acknowledgement and struggles to take his scarf off. The apartment is filled with the smell of a well cooked dinner. He can see the set table from the couch, as well as the chicken and potatoes fresh from the oven.

Feliciano almost gags.

Ludwig helps him take his scarf off. Feliciano lays his head on his shoulder and closes his eyes, god he’s never felt so tired in his life.

Ludwigs talking to him, he can hear it, but he just...can’t make the words out, like someone put cotton in his ears. Then, there’s a cool palm against his flushed cheek, which quickly moves to cup his forehead, soon followed by more words that he can’t make out.

“Feliciano you have a fever.” Ludwig’s eyes go wide, berating himself for not noticing it sooner. Unhealthy heat radiates from flushed cheeks that had previously been hidden by the scarf. He knew that Feliciano wasn’t acting like himself this morning, he _knew_ the he should have made Feliciano stay home today _gottverdammt_

Feliciano looks up at him, eyes unfocused, face scrunched into such a confused and pitiful expression that it makes Ludwig’s heart clench.

“Come on, lets get you to bed, can you stand?”

Feliciano feels Ludwig pull on his arm, he really doesn’t want to get up but he hears the word ‘bed’ amongst all the mumbling and he assumes that’s were Ludwig wants to take him. It takes some time, but Feliciano finally gets his heavy legs to work for him and move.

Ludwig sighs in mild relief when Feliciano manages to stand, although shakily. He gets up alongside him, ready to aid him in walking to their room, until Feliciano pitches foreword, boneless, making no attempt to break his fall.

Ludwig’s knees slam against the hardwood floor as he catches his boyfriend just in time. He calls his name but all he gets in response is a pain-filled moan. Feliciano’s face is covered in a sheen of sweat when Ludwig runs a hand through his hair.

“Oh, Engel, I’m so sorry for not noticing sooner.”

He then picks Feliciano up bridal style and takes him to their bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

_I’m so thirsty_

That’s the first thought that runs through Feliciano’s head.

He’s not awake, at least, not fully. His eyes aren’t open, but he definitely isn’t sleeping.

There’s a hand on his back now, gently lifting him into a semi-upright position, something cold, a glass, is pressed against his lips and oh, had he said that out loud? He must have, because now there’s a low voice saying “drink” and he doesn’t need to be told twice.

He opens his mouth, whoever’s holding the glass tips it so that the water slides down his throat. He swallows greedily, noticing just how dry his throat is, but the hand pulls the glass away before he can finish. He wants to protest but he can’t seem to get the right words out.

“Slow down, you’ll make yourself sick again.”

_Again?_ Feliciano thinks. He doesn’t remember throwing up, but at least he’s definitely awake now.

He cracks his eyes open. The first thing he sees is the half full glass of water, though the light is dim. He follows the hand to the persons chest, then to their face. At first, he thinks that it’s his brother, because Lovino always looks after him when he’s sick; but that wouldn’t make sense, Lovino doesn’t have blond hair, or blue eyes, or........

Finally it clicks.

“Ludwig” he croaks out. 

“Shhh it’s alright, finish your water.”

The glass is against his lips again and Feliciano gladly drains it.

Now that he’s awake, he can truly come to terms with how bad he feels.

His whole body just _hurts_ , sharp pain stabs through his head whenever he moves, ands it’s _just so hot_. He feels like his skin is burning, before he knows it there’s tears rolling down his cheeks and he’s calling for Ludwig again.

Something cold and damp begins wiping his face, momentarily catching on his cracked, dry lips before coming to a stop on his forehead. Feliciano sighs in relief.

Ludwig can’t stand to see him like this, the lamp on their nightstand illuminating hot tears still coming from hazel eyes, glazed over and fever bright, scarlet cheeks and purple smudges contrasting sharply with his sickly pale skin, dry lips cracking as he calls for him again.

_God he’s so sick_

“It’s ok liebling, it’s ok.” He reaches for the thermometer, manages to get Feliciano to hold it in his mouth, and rubs his eyes. It’s currently one in the morning, he hasn’t slept since his failed attempt to get Feliciano to eat some toast when he’d woken up a while ago and had subsequently vomited onto the floor.

The thermometer beeps. He pulls it from Feliciano’s lips to read it.

39.8, it went up again.

It’s at this point that he notices that Feliciano is still awake and looking at him.

“Shhhh it’s ok, go to sleep, you’ll feel better if you sleep.”

This seems to convince him, because his eyes droop and he’s asleep almost immediately.

Ludwig places a gentle kiss on Feliciano’s burning forehead and sighs.

It’s going to be a long night.

——————

Ludwig opens his eyes to sunlight seeping through the crack in the curtains. He’s sitting in a chair, back bent in half with his torso on the bed and his head resting in his crossed arms. He sits up and stretches, back cramping up from sleeping in such an awkward position. 

Feliciano looks like he’s still asleep, his breathing uneven and labored, brow furrowed as his eyes move erratically behind the lids. Ludwig wonders what he’s dreaming about as he reapplies the washcloth to his forehead. He’ll check his temperature when he wakes up. 

He looks at the clock on the wall. Surprisingly, they still have twenty minutes to get to work, if they were going to work, that is.

Ludwig gets up to call their offices to explain their absence. While he’s on the phone to Feliciano’s boss, he sees the bed covers shift. He hurriedly ends the conversation and sits on the bed.

Feliciano’s eyes are half open, lazily following Ludwigs movements as he sits beside him. 

“Good morning. How do you feel, any better?”

The only answer he gets is a sound of discomfort.

“Are you feeling hungry at all? You weren’t able to keep any food down last night, do you think that you can stomach some now?”

Another nonchalant grunt and Feliciano closes his eyes again. Alright then, he’ll prepare something and make Feliciano try anyway. He should probably also eat something himself while he’s at it.

————————-

Feliciano dreams of his family.

They’re all sitting together at the table, eating, there’s noise in the room but nobody is talking, the gentle noise gets louder and louder until Feliciano can’t take it any more. He drops his fork and covers his ears. The sound is still as loud as ever, as if it were coming from within his own head. Suddenly, Feliciano is on the floor, his grandfather and brother standing around him, not helping, just staring, with white, soulless eyes. The room melts away until it’s just the three of them and the noise. It’s still ringing in his ears but it’s getting clearer, he can start to make out what it’s saying. It almost sounds like............

“Feliciano!”

He jolts awake, a scream on his lips. His eyes move rapidly around the room, but Lovino isn’t there, and neither is his grandfather. Slowly, the room comes into focus, he flops back onto the pillows once he realizes where he is, the delirium born strength gone as quickly as it came.

Ludwig feels a knot in the pit of his stomach. He’s glad the he woke Feliciano up from whatever was plaguing him in his dreams. He props Feliciano upright using some pillows and reaches for the plate that he brought with him.

Ludwig ended up making porridge for himself, but he had a hard time thinking about what Feliciano could stomach. He remembered that when he was a child, mushed bananas with cinnamon were good on a weak stomach so he went with that. He just hoped that Feliciano could keep it down.

He held a spoonful of the bananas to Feliciano’s mouth. He honestly didn’t want to spoon feed him like a child, but he doubted that Feliciano was lucid enough to do it himself.

Feliciano turned his mouth away from the spoon.

“Liebling please just try it.”

“.....’m not hungry, no.”

“Feliciano I don’t think that you ate anything yesterday. Just eat a little bit, you need to keep your strength to fight this off.”

After a while, Feliciano reluctantly opens his mouth. It _did_ taste pleasant on his tongue, pity that his stomach didn’t agree.

They didn’t even manage to get halfway through the plate before Feliciano makes a horrendous sounding gargle and a hand flies to cover his mouth.

Ludwig immediately drops the spoon and grabs the bin that was beside their bed.  
He makes it just in time before Feliciano leans over the bed and throws up, thankfully not onto the floor this time.

It’s not long before nothing more comes up and tears run out of Feliciano’s eyes as he painfully dry-heaves into the bin.

Ludwig holds a cool washcloth to his forehead and rubs his back all the way through it. He then let him cry on his shoulder for a while before helping him wash his mouth out and changing the bin bag.

He gets Feliciano to drink some more water and checks his temperature before settling him back into bed. He falls asleep almost immediately. 

Ludwig sits back in the chair, head in his hands. He’s starting to get very worried now. Feliciano’s temperature was at 39.5, lower than before but still concerning. 

It dawns on him that he could call his brother for advice. He ponders on this decision for awhile, but he makes up his mind when he hears Feliciano cough and groan in his sleep.

Gilbert answers on the third ring.

“Ja?”

He sounded groggy.

“Gilbert, guten morgen, did I wake you up?”

“West? No, you didn’t, I had the night shift, I just got back in. Anyway, to what do I owe this pleasure of a phone call from my dear younger brother?”

“Ah, well, I need advice. Feliciano is sick.”

“Trouble in paradise, huh?, alright then, what are his symptoms?”

Ludwig resisted rolling his eyes at his brothers choice of words.

“He has a fever, he’s coughing and he hasn’t kept anything solid down. His fever was 39.5 last time I measured it.”

“Is he keeping down liquids?”

“Ja.”

“Alright then, make sure to keep him hydrated, try making him a light broth, don’t leave any bits of solid food in. That should be alright for his stomach. If his fever goes above 40 degrees or if it looks like he’s not keeping liquids down, don’t be afraid to bring him in ok?”

There was silence for a while.

“Hey, west, it’ll be ok, alright? I hate to hang up on you, but I really need to get some sleep, how else will I maintain my dashing complexion? Call me if anything changes, ok? You know that your favorite doctor is always on call.”

“Ja, thanks, Gilbert.”

“No problem.”

Ludwig put his phone back on the table. A light broth, he can do that. He should probably wait a while before trying to get Feliciano to eat anything else. It was, however, beginning to get quite boring just sitting by the bead as Feliciano sleeps. He decides that he might as well get some work done so that he won’t be terribly behind once he returns to his office. 

_________________

The gentle tapping of computer keys greeted Feliciano as he opened his eyes. Ludwig was sitting by the bed, using their nightstand as a makeshift desk. The light from the screen illuminating his face as the room had grown quite dark now as the evening approached. He tried to prop himself up on his elbow, but a sudden dizziness caused him to flop back onto the bed.

Apparently, this caught Ludwig’s attention, because the computer suddenly disappears and Ludwig had moved from the chair to the bed between one lazy blink and the other.

Ludwig places his palm against Feliciano’s cheek and smiles warmly.

“It looks like your fever’s going down.”

A timer goes off from somewhere in the house.

“I’ll be right back.”

Feliciano blinks again, but it must have been longer than a blink, because the next time he opens his eyes Ludwig is standing above him holding a bowl. Feliciano groans.

Ludwig props Feliciano up again and picks up the spoon. Feliciano whimpers and tries to hide his face.

“It’s ok, this should be easy on your stomach, it’s just plain broth.”

Feliciano looks at him with tears in his eyes.

“Ludwig please I don’t want to be sick again.”

Ludwig feels a pang in his heart.

“Liebling.....you can’t keep going on like this, and if you can’t keep this down then I’m going to have to take you to the hospital.”

Feliciano groans. “No hospital, no.”

“Then please try some. It’ll be good on your throat.”

Slowly, they work their way through the bowl until Feliciano refuses to eat anymore. It did soothe his sore throat, and thankfully, also his stomach.

Ludwig puts the bowl back on the bedside table and settles Feliciano back into bed. He shivers.

“It’s cold, Ludwig.”

“I can turn the heater up, if you want.”

“No,” Feliciano shakes his head and grabs Ludwig’s arm and looks up at him, “Just.....can you hug me? U-until I fall asleep?”

Ludwig’s heart melts. He has never been able to resist those eyes.

He awkwardly climbs over Feliciano and settles in beside him under the covers. Feliciano sighs happily and snuggles into Ludwig’s chest.  
Ludwig wraps his arms around him and strokes his hair until they both succumb to sleep.

—————————-

Feliciano’s fever breaks early the next morning.

Ludwig wakes up to Feliciano shivering and the sheets soaked through with sweat. 

He peels the covers off. Feliciano coughs dryly and rolls over, pulling the covers with him. His body and hair feels gross with dried and fresh sweat. Ugh.

Ludwig seems to have noticed this too.

“A nice bath will make you feel better, would you like that?”

A groan, then “Yes please.”

Ludwig picks him up bridal style and carries him to the bathroom across the hallway. He sets Feliciano down onto the toilet seat and starts the water. Once the water is ready, he strips Feliciano of his loose clothes and throws them onto the floor to be washed later before gently placing Feliciano into the tub.

Feliciano immediately relaxes into the water as it soothes the leftover aches from his muscles. Ludwig leaves briefly to change the bedsheets and to put the old ones into the washing machine. He returns to find Feliciano exactly as he left him and he can’t help but smile at the peaceful expression on his face.

Ludwig squirts some shampoo onto Feliciano’s hair and works it into a lather. Feliciano leans into his touch.

“Hmm Ludwig?”

“Yes?”

“What time is it?”

“Around eight, why?”

He thinks for a moment.

“Did I eat breakfast?”

“No, do you feel up to it?”

“Ah, yes, I think so.”

Ludwig feels relieved. This was the most lucid that Feliciano had been these past few days. He makes quick work of washing Feliciano and getting him out of the tub. It’s not long before they’re both settled back in bed and Feliciano is working his way through a packet of crackers.

Ludwig has his computer on his lap and browsing the movies on Netflix before Feliciano speaks again.

“What day is it?”

“Wednesday.”

“Ugh, I’ve missed so much work.”

“Don’t think about work right now. If I’m not mistaken, you’re the one that keeps telling me to relax. You should listen to your own advice, sometimes.”

Feliciano shifts awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry-“

Ludwig interrupts him. “No, no need to apologize. It’s not your fault. But you have to remember to make time for yourself. You taught me that, remember. Now, what do you want to watch?”

They settle for a romantic comedy. They’re only on the opening scene but Feliciano’s eyelids are already starting to droop.

“If you’re tired then go to sleep.”

“It feels like all I did yesterday was sleep.”

He still only makes half way through the movie before he nods off against Ludwig’s shoulder.

Ludwig lays him against the pillow and kisses his forehead softly.

It’s going to be ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finished! Sorry that it took so long to update, but at least I finished it before the end of the year, so, there’s that at least. (Huuge shout out to my betas, bless them)
> 
> Feliciano is my favorite character, but at the same time I want him to suffer. Why am I like this?
> 
> If you have any ideas or requests then don’t be afraid to ask!
> 
> Thank you all for the hits and kudos!

**Author's Note:**

> I firmly believe that there aren’t enough sickfics in this fandom and I am here to fix that.
> 
> Also since apparently I have no concept of a short story this will be split into two chapters, I’ll try and get the second one finished as quick as I can!
> 
> Big shout out to my Beta readers pippaphil and radioactive_hydrogen on instagram!


End file.
